Scribd
Upload
41 views

Microteach Discovery

1. The document provides instructions for an activity to discover the surface area of a sphere using oranges. Students are asked to trace the circles of orange peel to represent great circles on the sphere's surface. 2. Working in groups, students peel orange halves and flatten the pieces to count how many great circles they can make without overlapping. 3. The summary asks students to fill in blanks to state that the surface area of a sphere is equal to the area of all the great circles, with the area of one circle being πr^2, so the total surface area is 4πr^2.

Uploaded by

Sean Selba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
41 views

Microteach Discovery

1. The document provides instructions for an activity to discover the surface area of a sphere using oranges. Students are asked to trace the circles of orange peel to represent great circles on the sphere's surface. 2. Working in groups, students peel orange halves and flatten the pieces to count how many great circles they can make without overlapping. 3. The summary asks students to fill in blanks to state that the surface area of a sphere is equal to the area of all the great circles, with the area of one circle being πr^2, so the total surface area is 4πr^2.

Uploaded by

Sean Selba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Name:______________________________

Discovering the Surface area of a Sphere


You have been given the task of finding the surface area of a sphere using only an orange. Using
this orange however, this should provide a memorable experience in which you should never
forget this formula again!! To start this activity, there is one piece of information that you must
have. Even though the oranges you receive are precut, they are cut in such a way that each circle
represents a great circle, or as better defined, the circle with the greatest radius. Follow the
directions and make conjectures along the way to discover the surface area of a sphere.

1. Split up into groups of two.


2. Have one of your group members place the 8 x11 blank sheet of paper in front of him/her
3. That same group member should place one of the halves, wet side down, on the paper and
trace as many circles as the paper will allow.
4. Educated Guess!!! If you peel the orange, how many great circles do you think that you will
fill?________________
5. Have the other member of your group peel the ENTIRE orange including the other halves
peel. Break it up into a lot of smaller pieces and flatten them out.
6. Jointly, see how many great circles you can fill. Remember, the circles need to stay inside the
circles (No overlapping!!) How many did you find?________________
7. So the surface area of a sphere is equal to the area of ___________ great circles. With the
radius =r and the area of one circle being _______________, the surface area of a sphere is equal
to _____________________

You might also like